LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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THE SUMNER OUTRAGE. 






FULL REPORT 

OP THH 

SPEECHES 

AT IHI 

MEETING OF CITIZENS IN CAMBRIDGE, 

JUNE 2, 185 6, 



IK BIFIRENCE TO THE 



ASSAULT ON SENATOR SUMNER, 

In the Senate Chamber at Washington. 



OAMBBIDOi: JOHN IOBD, PRINTIB. 

1856. 



*>>•▼»-** % > 



,2 
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The following pages contain a full report of the speeches at 
the great meeting in Old Cambridge, on Monday evening, 
June 2, — one of the most important meetings yet held in re- 
ference to the outrage upon our distinguished Senator. The 
call, designating Lyceum Hall as the place of meeting, was 
signed by Prof. Joel Parker, Prof. Theophilus Parsons, Hon. 
Jared Sparks, Prof. C. C. Felton, Henry W. Longfellow, Esq., 
Rev. John A. Albro, Rev. "William Newell, Rev. John Pryor, 
Rev. Nicholas Hoppin, Hon. James D. Green, Samuel Batch- 
elder, Esq., Hon. Willard Phillips, and R. H. Dana, Jr., Esq. 

Finding Lyceum Hall wholly insufficient to accommodate 
the crowd of people, the meeting adjourned to Rev. Dr. Al- 
bro's church, which in a few moments was completely filled 
with an assemblage of the highest respectability. The gallery 
was crowded with ladies, and many also were scattered through 
the body of the house. 

Hon. James D. Green was called to the chair, and prayer 
was offered by Rev. Dr. Albro. On motion of Dr. Estes Howe, 
a committee of five was nominated by the chair to retire and 
report a list of officers for the permanent organization of the 
meeting. This committee was composed of Estes Howe, 
Seth Ames, F. L. Chapman, Wm. A. Saunders, and A. S. Waite. 

On motion of 11. H. Dana, Jr., a committee of five was 
appointed by the chair to retire and report resolutions for the 
acceptance of the meeting. 

This committee consisted of R. H. Dana, Jr., Rev. Dr. New- 
ell, Rev. Dr. Francis, Chauncey Smith, and Charles H. Saun- 
ders, who retired to the vestry. Mr. Green then addressed 
the meeting. 



SPEECH OF HON. J. D. GREEN. 

Occupying this position, as I do, gentlemen, by your favor, I 
trust I may be allowed to avail myself of the interval occasioned 
by the retirement of the Committee, to say a word or two in re- 
gard to the object for which this meeting has been convened. It 
is, as expressed in the call, to take into consideration the outrage 
on Mr. Sumner. The outrage on Mr. Sumner: — how profound is 
the feeling which these few words excite ! How intense and 
wide-spread, and all but universal is the sensation produced 
among us, — as witnessed by this vast assembly, — produced 
throughout this whole community, — throughout the entire North, 
for, — however it may have been heretofore, there are pretty de- 
cided indications that there is now a North (cheers), — how all but 
universal is the sensation, — would that I could say, not only 
throughout the North, but the entire Union, — produced by this 
outrage, which, to be properly characterized, must be pronounced, 
as it was by our other senator, brutal, murderous and cowardly 
(cheers) ; words which he who uttered them, believing them to bo 
the truth, in the true spirit of a man declines, upon reconsidera- 
tion, to retract or qualify. 

The assault was all that these words express when considered 
as committed on a peaceful and defenceless man, seated at his 
desk, unconscious of approaching danger, confined by his position 
so as to be unable to protect himself, stricken down by blows up- 
on his head, repeated again and again till he falls senseless and 
covered with blood upon the floor. The assault was all this, so 
far as Mr. Sumner was individually concerned. But considered 
as an assault on a Senator of the United States, in the Senate 
Chamber, with personal privileges and immunities guarantied to 
him by the Constitution, and committed for words spoken in de- 
bate, it assumes a far graver significance, and deserves to be met 
by a voice of rebuke, — rebuke, do I say, — it is too mild a term, — 
it should be met by a cry of reprobation and execration from one 
end of the Union to the other. It is a blow at the Constitution, 
— it is a blow at the Union, — it is a blow at the liberties of each 

one of us. 

* 



But as an indignity offered to Massachusetts, a sovereign state, 
in the person of her Senator, it demands from us an expression 
of sentiment, which, while it shall be well considered, shall be 
strong, explicit, decided, and so significant as to prove effective. 
It must go forth not from any political party, but from the mass- 
es of the people, assembled, as we are here to-night, without re- 
ference to political distinctions. 

It is unnecessary for me to say to those who know me, that I 
have never been connected with the political organization to 
which Mr. Sumner belonged. But I have always had regard for 
him as a man of high character, great abilities, an accomplished 
scholar, an eloquent and earnest advocate of the convictions he 
sincerely held, and not least have I regarded him as a gentleman. 
I have carefully read his speech. It is an eloquent and powerful 
production; and though there are some expressions applied to 
the Senator from South Carolina (cheers) which gave me 
pain, it contains nothing to approach the language which has 
been repeatedly used, and without rebuke, in the Senate of the 
United States. It was a rule laid down, if my recollection is not 
at fault, by the favorite and distinguished son of South Carolina, 
John C. Calhoun, when, as Vice President, he occupied the chair 
of the Senate, that it was not his duty to call senators to order, 
he not being a member of the body, but only, ex-officio, its pre- 
siding officer. This was a duty belonging to senators themselves. 
Under this ruling a great degree of license has been habitually 
tolerated there, and in no respect was it exceeded or even equalled 
by the words which fell from Mr, Sumner, under what degree of 
provocation we do not know. 

I have no sympathy with those who indulge themselves in the 
use of harsh and reproachful epithets, — offensive and irritating 
personalities, — calculated only to exasperate, and to cause aliena- 
tion among those who should feel bound together by the strong- 
est tics of fraternal regard. Sectional animosities and sectional 
parties I have regarded as our greatest danger. The Union and 
the Constitution I cherish as of value inappreciable, and their 
overthrow I believe would bring calamities upon us, the magni- 
tude and extent of which no one can foresee. 

But "there is a Divinity which shapes our ends." Events un. 
der the providence of God, — events beyond our control, — are 
bearing us on, we know not whither. There is no question that 
the present is a time of exceeding peril to the peace of the coun- 
try. The momentous issue seems to be forcing itself upon us, — 



it is being precipitated by events daily transpiring in Washington 
and in Kansas, — whether freedom or slavery shall prevail. May 
God grant wisdom to those to whose hands are entrusted the 
destinies of the Republic, and may this great issue be peacefully 
decided. It is in the power of the House of Representatives at 
Washington to atone, in no small degree, for the outrage commit- 
ted, by expelling the obnoxious member, (cheers), and it is in the 
power of the Executive, if he will but speak, the word, to heal 
the wounds and restore peace to bleeding and suffering Kansas. 
But if it shall be ordered otherwise, — if this great issue is to 
be decided only by an appeal to arms, the tremendous responsi- 
bility must be upon those who cause it. Our consciences shall 
not reproach us with the guilt of blood. We will not be the ag- 
gressors, but we will maintain our rights ; and, come what may, 
we will be firm and united in the resolve that the encroachments 
of slavery shall be stayed, and that Kansas shall be free. (Pro- 
longed cheers.) 

The committee on the choice of officers for a permanent or- 
ganization, entered and reported the following list : 
For President — Hon. Joel Parker. 

For Vice Presidents — Hon. Theophilus Parsons, Prof. C. C- 
Felton, Hon. Jared Sparks, Prof. Henry W. Longfellow, Dr. Chas. 
Beck, Dr. Morrill Wyman, Dr. Joseph E. Worcester, Hon. Wil- 
lard Phillips, Hon. J. T. Buckingham, C. C. Little, S. Batchcl- 
der, J. Coolidge, A. Edwards, Rev. A. M. Averill, A. Willard, 
G. Meacham, S. T. Farwell, D. S. Buck, J. B. Dana, H. Potter, 
and W. L. Whitney, Esqrs. 

Secretaries— F. L. Batchelder, F. H. Underwood, J. Bartlett) 
and F. W. Palfrey, Esqrs. 

Dr. Howe and Mr. Dana were appointed to conduct the Presi- 
dent to the chair, which was done amid acclamations from all 
parts of the house. 

Judge Parker, on taking the chair, was received with great 
applause. When it had subsided, he addressed the meeting as 
follows : 

SPEECH OF PROF. PARKER. 
Fellow Citizens : I consented to the use of my name in con- 
nection with the call for this meeting upon some deliberation, 
after having been requested so to do. A note from a friend 
this morning informed me that there was a desire that I should 
preside, and I am here, on your election, to perform, aa well 
as I may, the duty which you have assigned to me. 



8 

I make this statement, not by way of apology for my appear- 
ance here ; but that you may be aware that I am not acting 
from any mere personal impulse, however strong my feelings 
may be upon the present occasion ; and that whatever I may 
6ay should be regarded as the expression of a well-consider- 
ed opinion. 

I have no doubt myself that I ought to be here. It has been 
my duty, as a professor in the Law School, to support and 
maintain, — not the justice nor the expediency, — but the con- 
stitutionality of the so called Fugitive Slave Law, because I 
believed it to be a constitutional enactment ; and in the Con- 
stitutional Convention in 1853, upon a debate respecting the 
judiciary, I expressed a hope that Massachusetts would not 
come in conflict with the authorities of the Union upon that 
question. One who has to the best of his ability maintained 
that opinion is at least no fanatic, and need not be suspected of 
any immoderate desire for agitation. 

We are called together at this time by an act of personal 
violence. A cowardly and infamous assault has been made 
upon a citizen of Massachusetts in the capitol of the United 
States. A most grievous wrong has been done to him person- 
ally, endangering his life, and involving the possibility of the 
crime of wilful murder. If this were all, however much we 
might condemn the conduct of the assailant, and however 
much we might sympathize with the victim, we might well 
leave to the violated laws of the District of Columbia, the task 
of asserting their majesty, and of punishing the aggressor, 
without any public expression of our opinion ; — that is suppos- 
ing that there is any vitality in the law relating to the personal 
safety of a citizen within the precincts of the capitol ; of which, 
however, it would seem there may be a reasonable doubt. 

This dastardly outrage was committed upon the person of a 
Senator of this Commonwealth, and within the walls of the 
Senate Chamber, and was thus an indignity to the State itself; 
and this might well justify the Commonwealth in asserting 
her rights and demanding the punishment of the poltroon who 
had assailed her in the person of her defenceless represent- 
ative. If there were no more than this, the matter might 
well be left in the hands of the constituted authorities, who 
well know what is due to the dignity of the Commonwealth, 
and will not be slow to vindicate her honor upon all fitting oc. 
c as ions. 



But this is not all. The felon blow which struck down the 
citizen and the Senator, prostrated at the same time the privi- 
leges of the Senate and the freedom of debate guarantied by 
the Constitution of the United States. It was vengeance for 
the free expression of unpalatable opinions, and designed to 
deter others from the exercise of their constitutional rights ; 
and it is but the last of a series of outrages similar in char- 
acter, though not in degree, which have made the city of Wash- 
ington a bear garden, and the capitol little better than a den 
of wild beasts. 

It is this blow to freedom of speech and constitutional privi- 
leges which gives this act a painful significance, above that of 
any mere private assault upon a citizen, or even upon one of 
those appointed to represent the interests of a sovereign state 
in the Congress of the United States. It is this prostration of 
constitutional liberty which has called us here at this time, 
and it is this which demands of us, and of all others who re- 
spect the law.and possess a love of liberty, a careful, deliberate, 
unimpassioned consideration of the consequences to which 
such occurrences will lead if their repetition is permitted. 

The matter attains a still more lamentable eminence from 
something like an appearance of support and justification given 
to it by others, and elsewhere. There have been some indi- 
cations of confederacy and maintenance from other members of 
Congress, who seem to think that they were sent to Wash- 
ington for purposes of violence, and not for legislation. There 
have been exciting paragraphs of approval in some newspa- 
pers, which appear to have forgotten that the better part of 
valor is discretion. There has been, it is said, a presentation 
of a pitcher and a cane from the constituents of the principal 
offender. The articles which compose this testimonial to the 
valor of the recipient, and which may be exhibited in the 
triumphal ovation, which, perhaps, awaits his return to his 
admiring friends, seem to be fitting accompaniments to each 
other in his hands, the use of the one being expected to nerve 
his courage up to the sticking point for the use of the other. 

But notwithstanding all such demonstrations of approbation, 
it is not to be assumed that this atrocious deed will be charac- 
terized as chivalrous, and its miserable perpetrator be hailed 
as a gallant son of the South, by any beyond the halls of Con- 
gress, except a few choice spirits who should rank below the 



10 

bully and the blackguard. It is by no means to be concluded, 
as yet, that it will be sustained by high-minded men of hon- 
orable standing in the Southern States. And until that is 
made apparent it is not to be treated as the act of the South. 
I observe that some of the Boston papers have noticed this 
as an " indignation meeting." I am unwilling to accept that 
designation. No doubt it is all that, but I trust that this, and 
all meetings of a like character will be much more than that. 
The inquiry has been made, "What is to be done ? — what can 
be done ?" The answer is — attempt to obtain redress for the 
past,— demand security for the future. The Commonwealth 
has acted as became her, in her requisition for the expulsion of 
the aggressor, and she should not rest satisfied unless that pun- 
ishment is inflicted. The Legislature of Connecticut has acted 
as became the representatives of a free and a sovereign state. 
Others will doubtless adopt similar measures. 

Meetings of citizens should be holden not only in every 
town Avithin this Commonwealth, but, without regard to sec- 
tional lines and sectional prejudices, there should be meetings 
in all places where there is a love of law and liberty, and a 
hatred of violence and oppression ; and a stern rebuke should 
be given to this and to all other attempts to stifle freedom of 
opinion and freedom of speech. These meetings should attack 
nobody, and menace nobody, and denounce nobody, except the 
perpetrators and abettors of this unmanly outrage. There 
should be a union of all men, and all parties, for the assertion 
of constitutional freedom through the ballot-box, and by all 
other constitutional methods. 

And if all these measures fail ? — God in his infinite mercy 
avert such a catastrophe. But, if a wise Providence, for rea- 
sons known only to Omniscience, should permit the madness 
and violence of a few to tear away from the Constitution the 
safe-guards of freedom upheld by law, leaving only the forms 
of a Iree government in the place of the substance which we 
have fondly hoped was obtained, it is not for us now and here 
to say what shall then be done. The exigencies of that time 
must needs bring with them its measures. 

In the meantime, however, with nothing of threat, and 
nothing of offence, let it be made to appear in all constitutional 
modes, that these assemblages of the people are not matter of 
form ; that they are not formal protests ; that they are not 



11 

mere expressions of indignation, however deep ; but that they 
are to be taken as the exponents of an unalterable and un- 
conquerable determination to assert and maintain the suprem- 
acy of the law ; free thought and free speech ; freedom of de- 
bate and immunity therefor ; at whatever cost and at all haz- 
ards. 

Let it be understood that the government of the United 
States must protect the delegates who assemble in her halls 
of legislation, and not suffer them to be struck down on the 
very spot where they are entitled to privilege, and immunity, 
and absolute safety. Let it be assured that no representative 
of Massachusetts, — that no representative of any State in the 
Union, — is to be deterred by violence " from espousing what- 
ever opinions he may choose to espouse, from debating when- 
ever he may see fit to debate, or from speaking whatever he 
may see fit to say on the floor of the Senate." Let it be re- 
membered that there are other forms of oppression more 
odious than a colonial government and a Boston Port Bill, 
bad as they were. The stamp act and the tea tax convulsed 
the civilized world. But taxation, even without representa- 
tion, is but as the small dust of the balance, when compared 
with the constitutional right of freedom of debate, within the 
limits of parliamentary law, in the halls of legislation. 

For myself, personally, I am perhaps, known to most of you 
as a peaceable citizen, reasonably conservative, devotedly at- 
tached to the Constitution, and mu«h too far advanced in life 
for gasconade ; but, under present circumstances, I may be 
pardoned for saying that some of my father's blood was shed 
on Bunker Hill, at the commencement of one revolution, and 
that there is a little more of the same sort left, if it shall prove 
that need be, for the beginning of another. 

R. H. Dana, Esq., Chairman of the Committee, then re- 
ported the following 

BESOLXJTION. 

In the late outrage upon Mr. Sumner, we see an act in itself 
brutal, murderous and cowardly ; and we desire to do all that 
we can that a deed so unspeakably base, may be rendered in- 
delibly disgraceful. 

Committed upon a man dignified by every liberal sentiment, 
and every liberal accomplishment, an ornament to the Senate 
and the country, the deed is conspicuous in its atrocity. 



12 

Committed deliberately in the Senate House, by a member 
of Congress, for words 6poken in debate, it concerns every 
citizen of the United States to insist upon its being punished 
by all the political power of Congress, and by all the criminal 
power of the District of Columbia, the common national do- 
main. 

Committed upon a Senator from Massachusetts, in the sanc- 
tuary of his office, for words spoken in discharge of his duty 
to us, it behooves every citizen of Massachusetts to insist 
upon redress for the past, and to provide security for the fu- 
ture. 

Defended and adopted by the slave-holding power, by their 
representatives and their press, and seen in connexion with 
the whole course of things relating to Kansas, and with other 
acts and series of acts elsewhere and heretofore, we recognise 
in it not an isolated act of one man, but a part of a system, 
not the accident of passiojl, but the effect of causes permanent 
in their nature, and increasing in their power. "NVe see in it a 
part of a system which aims at the subjugation of free speech 
and free action in the free states, and in their representatives. 
We 6ee in it the latest and most extreme of the encroachments 
of that fearful oligarchy of slave power, which has usurped 
political domination and now threatens to spread a moral 
servitude over the land. 

Therefore i^ it, that from all political connexions, from all 
religious denominations, from all professions and avocations in 
life, we have assembled here to declare our sentiments and de- 
terminations. We declare our abhorrence of the act. We 
tender our sympathy to our Senator in his personal sufferings. 
We declare our solemn conviction that the time has come 
when the people of the free states must unite in one earnest 
effort to recover their personal liberties and political equality, 
and to retrieve the honor of the country. The Constitution 
puts in our hands, by legal and peaceable means, the power 
to do all this. Let it be done ! 

Before the acceptance of the resolutions was moved, Mr. 
Dana proposed to make some remarks, but wished first to 
hear others, especially the clergy, and Dr. Pryor was called for 
who briefly adopted the resolution, and the speech of Judge 
Parker, as expressing his sentiments, with the exception of 
the Fugitive Slave Law. 

SPEECH OF PROF. PARSONS. 
Mr. Parsons rose amid enthusiastic cheers, and said — 
il/r. President : — I had hoped never again to hear my own 
voice at any public meeting. The few who know anything of 
mc, know that I am of no party, and have not, for many years, 
taken any active interest in politics. Neither do any personal 
considerations bring me hero. I endeavor, for this evening at 



13 

least, to forget the man who struck and the man who fell. 
A sense of peril impending over the best interests of humanity, 
brings me here, to say to you a few words, which, however feeble, 
shall at least be well and carefully considered. I speak only 
for myself; what others think, how others feel, I know not. 
But I will try to tell you, very briefly, what seems to me the les- 
son and the warning of that sad occurrence at Washington, 
which we have met to consider. That I may be understood, 
you must permit me to remind you of some things which no 
American can know too well or remember too often. Let me 
refer to our own early history, and to that earlier history of 
the old world, which formed a fitting preface to our own. 

I say, then, that through all the countless generations of the 
past, in every corner of that old world, from the farthest East, 
from the distant shores of that Dead Sea of Chinese civiliza- 
tion, through the mountains and plains, the jungles and. deserts 
of Asia, through all the gehennas of desolate Africa, and in 
every spot in Europe, man, from the beginning of recorded his- 
tory, has been governed by force, or, what is the same thing, 
by law over him and against him. The few nominal republics 
which have existed, were small, imperfect, and little else than 
aristocracies in disguise. And this continued until all the | os- 
sibilities and forms of this kind of government were exhaust- 
ed; and then, and not until then, Providence unveiled anew 
world, for a new experiment. He bade the stormy Atlantic, which 
had been the barrier of nations, become their highway. Across 
it He brought hither, our fathers, who, whatever else may be 
said of them, certainly brought with them the ripest fruits of 
the best civilization of Europe. For here was to be a new thing. 
Here was to be tried, on the largest scale, the self-government 
of a great nation. Here it was to be determined, whether hu- 
man self government was possible ; whether it was possible for 
men to live together under self-government. And it was to be 
determined for all time, for if the experiment fail now, and here, 
it can never be repeated under more auspicious circumstances. 

Sir, I believe, firmly and undoubtingly, in a Divine Provi- 
dence. But I believe in one that leads men and does not force 
them. One that gives to them all the good they can be made 
willing to accept, and no more ; for more would not be good. 
Hence, through the long cycles of the past, Providence has 
waited for the time when, surrounding the gift of freedom with 
every accessory and aid and support which the sovereignty of 



14 

the universe could gather around it, He could place this gift of 
freedom in the hands of this nation. And not for ourselves 
alone has. He given it to us. One of two things we must tell to 
the whole world, to the whole future. We must tell to the eager 
hope and earnest desire of that old world, the whole of which 
that Christianity has touched is now heaving and throbbing 
with the passionate longing to become what they suppose we 
are, we must tell them, hope on, strive on, for human freedom 
is possible, and it is the best of all things and the foundation of 
all good, — or we must tell them, hope no more ! Look on us, 
and learn to despair; look on us, and learn that man cannot 
govern himself; look on us and learn too, that the same mercy 
which would have given to man freedom, if he would accept 
and preserve it, leads him even to despotism, to save him from 
the deeper ruin of anarchy. 

For myself, sir, I have hope, a strong enduring hope ; al- 
though I see as plainly as I ever saw a storm grow in the 6ky 
and darken the earth, I see that great dangers are near us. I 
am as sure as I can be of anything.that the destiny of this coun- 
try, and of the -world, so far as that is bound up in this, is all 
compressed and locked up in the question, can the people of 
this country, will the people of this country, acknowledge, 
and respect, and preserve, and insist upon the preservation of 
the Constitution and the Law, as their own -work, and as the 
best expression of truth and justice which they can make. 
For if men do not respect the law and acknowledge its author- 
ity, what else is there in a republic but passion and impulse 
and the will of the individual, however foolish, however sel- 
fish. One man, or a hundred, or a thousand, may say, not, we 
object to the Constitution and the law, and will do our utmost 
to make it better, but, we will disregard the Constitution and 
the law, for we are wiser and better than they. But it is plain 
that if one man, or any man, have the right to say and do this, 
every man has, and therefore no man has. It is certain there- 
fore—certain and obvious as the sun in heaven, which only the 
blind do not see or they who turn their eyes away, it is certain 
that will, mere will, mere force, becomes our sovereign the mo- 
ment that law is dethroned. For if the will of the community, 
deliberately expressed as law by the means and in the manner 
distinctly determined on by the whole, containing, however 
imperfect or faulty it may be, whatever of wisdom or of good- 
ness the community can bring to the mode of making its law, 



15 

if this is to be superseded by tbe judgment or the pleasure or 
the will ol each roan, is it not plain that we give ourselves up 
to the reign of the strongest. Who the strongest is, conflict 
must determine ; and thus through the well-worn path of an- 
archy — a path of mire, mingled with blood, we shall grope our 
way to the refuge of a master. 

So has it ever been ; so will it be again, if we do not prove 
ourselves worthy of our possible destiny. If we do not bring 
to the working of this new experiment which God puts into 
our hands, this new principle of loyalty to the Constitution and 
the law. But let that principle pervade this whole community 
like its life blood, and three things will follow. One, the com- 
munity will accept intelligently and in good faith its respon- 
sibility, and put forth its best, most earnest and most con- 
tinued efforts to make its law what it should be — only truth 
and justice in action. Another consequence would be that an 
usurpation of the powers of law in a manner and for a pur- 
pose that are certainly and >bviously devoid of legal right, like 
that which is now kindling the fires of civil war in Kanzas, 
would be impossible. And a third would be, that if an occur- 
rence like that we have met to consider did not become im- 
possible, it would be met by a storm of universal reprobation, 
which would, at all events, render it harmless as an example. 

And now, sir, you will see why I regard this occurrence as 
most significant, as most alarming ; why it seems to me to 
utter a warning which we can disregard only at our own pro- 
foundest peril. Let Mr. Brooks have all the excuse he can 
derive from the fact that he has always lived where principles 
and habits have prevailed that are very different from those 
prevailing here. Still, I suppose the habit of attacking an un- 
armed and unprepared man cannot be common there or any- 
where in the civilized world. Let him have all the excuse he 
can derive from the provocation. I take that to amount to 60 
much as this and no more. The Senate has no rule, and un- 
fortunately no usage, to prevent personalities in debate. No 
one charges Mr. Sumner with beginning this. He was attacked 
and he retorted. Both sides did their best, or rather their 
worst. And Mr. Sumner poured forth burning and stinging 
reproaches and sarcasms, of which the fire and the sting have 
not been surpassed since the Senate Chamber of the United 
States became a seething caldron of vituperation. Admit all 



16 

this, and as much, more as his worst enemy has ever charged 
or imagined, and then the question is, to my mind.wholly un- 
affected. For this question is, will this country approve and 
sanction as a precedent, the answering of words spoken in de- 
bate, by a most violent breach of the law, such and so com- 
mitted, that it involved and implied the most contemptuous 
defiance of the law. 

Sir, if this assault were an isolated fact, however I might re- 
gret it for the sake of the parties, — I speak of both, for Mr. 
Sumner's wounds are, we are glad to know, healing, while 
those his assailant inflicted on himself will fester worse and 
worse to the last day of his life, and leave a plague-spot on his 
memory, — however I might lament it as a discredit and a 
misfortune, it would not benr for me the dread significance 
which now it bears. For it 6eems to me, and I say it with 
profound regret, that this assailant, who struck down, not 
our Senator alone, but the sanctity of the law, — he seems to 
me only to have reached the goal towards which the whole 
country, for many years, has been drifting. In the excite- 
ment and disturbance of mind and uprooting of the land marks 
of principle which have grown out of the conflict now going 
on, — in this direction have we been going. This last act is a 
result, a consummation, towards which, North and South, East 
and West have all, though in different ways, contributed ; for 
every instance, every where, which has in any way manifested 
a wilful disregard of the Constitution ; every act and every 
word of this kind, has contributed to this consummation. And 
this consummation is the reign, not of law, but of will and mere 
force. Let no one tell me, sir, as has been too often said, there 
is another alternative. The law may be cast down, and con- 
science or reason, or religion, or some other good thing, be 
throned in its 6tead. That cannot be. We make our Consti- 
tution and our law. We put into it, the community put into it, 
whatever of reason, of conscience, of religion, it has and can put 
there. For it is intended to be precisely the instrument expo- 
nent of all these, and nothing else. Improve these — in God's 
name improve these, — work on them, work with them — with 
all your hearts and souls if you will, to improve the Constitu- 
tion and the law, — but do not forget that there is no other thing 
than that Constitution and the law which it protects, that can 
stand between us and mischief, disaster, degradation, and ruin. 



17 

Therefore, while I hope, fear mingles with my hope. There- 
fore would I have this meeting, and this State, lift up its voice, 
if it were possible, in words of reprobation of this violence, 
which should be heard wherever man, suffering and striving 
man, is listening to us for leave to hope, — words which should 
echo along the ages, as thunder echoes along the mountains. 
Therefore would I have this State, which began the long war- 
fare that liberated us from a personal king, begin now the 
battle which shall restore and confirm the sovereignty of the 
Constitution and the law. If in times past we have taken 
steps in a wrong direction, let us retrace them. Let us be calm, 
deliberate, and just. Passion is fever ; and its apparent 
strength is but debilitating violence. Truth is health, and its 
vigor grows by exercise. Then let Massachusetts say to her 
sister states, and to that great audience which far beyond our 
own borders will hear her utterance at this crisis, let her say, 
for us and for our children, we will do what in us lies to 
make our law and the law of our whole country, wise, benefi- 
cent and just ; but we will not have the reign of terror, and, 
therefore, we will submit ourselves, to the Constitution and 
the law. For the liberty which God gave to our fathers, and 
they transmitted unimpaired to us and we owe to our children, 
shall not, by insidious and slow corruption, nor by fierce out- 
break and defiant violence, degenerate into licentiousness, and 
through licentiousness, pass into anarchy, and so perish. 

Mr. Parsons concluded amid hearty cheers, and Prof. Felton 
was loudly called for, and received with strong demonstrations 
of joy. 

SPEECH OF PROF. C. C. FELTON. 

If this were a political meeting, said the Professor, it would 
not be held in these sacred walls, nor should I, who am no poli- 
tician, be present sharing in its proceedings. If it were any or- 
dinary meeting, or a sudden assemblage under the 6pur of an 
outbreak of passion, it would not have been opened by a fervent 
appeal to the Most High. 

An event has occurred wholly without example in the history 
of civilized nations. Party watch-words are heard no more, and 
party cries have ceased, and we meet as by a common impulse 
on this great and solemn occasion. The telegraphic nerves are 
trembling all over the country every moment with the burden ot 
the expression of public opinion on this great outrage. I lent 
2* 



18 

my name to the call for this meeting, but that was all I expected 
to do. I did not expect to speak, for, until a late hour, I sup- 
posed I should be performing my ordinary duties elsewhere. I 
cannot, however, refuse to respond to the call of my friends, 
fellow citizens and fellow students yonder. I am glad this meet- 
ing was not assembled in the first flush of indignation, and that 
time was given for sober second-thought ; I am glad that the priests 
of the law and the priests of God, to whom we look for light and 
guidance, have had time to consider this matter deliberately. 
This deed has been called a murderous and cowardly act, and 
though it may seem needless to repeat them, yet these are the only 
fitting epithets to apply to it ; the only epithets a man, with a 
heart in his bosom, can affix to it. It is an act without a par- 
allel in the civilized world, — nay, almost without example in 
savage life. It can only be compared to that of the tiger, 
stealing without warning, coward that he is, to pounce on his 
defenceless prey. It was not an act committed in passion, which 
might have palliated its enormity. It was done i n the execution 
of a plan, formed deliberately, and communicated to a conclave 
of congenial spirits. Neither the chieftain in the conspiracy, nor 
any one of his abettors, had the manliness to give their intended 
victim a word or whisper of warning. Carefully concealing their 
purpose from the unconscious object of their plot, stealing into 
the Senate Chamber, when most of the senators had retired, 
watching the departure of his colleague, known to be armed, 
waiting till he was writing at his desk and resistance was im- 
possible, thinking as he was a man of peace, perhaps he would 
not resist, yet choosing to make sure that he could not, (for let 
me tell you that Sumner is a man of no little physical power, 
and once rouse in him that lurking devil that lies in the heart 
of every man, whether member of the Peace Society or not, and 
I would not answer for the safety of " the gallant relative " 
and his associates, brave as their deeds proved them to be,) 
slinking into vacant seats they had no right to fill, this 
man Brooks, who claims to be a gentleman, approached an 
unarmed, unconscious, pre-occupied Senator, clothed in the 
sanctity of his office, surrounded by the emblems of the re- 
public, bearing in his person the inviolable majesty of the 
Sovereign State which he represented, — stunned him with 
sudden blows upon the unprotected head, felled him to the floor, 
and left him welterinjr in his blood. 



19 

I have not heretofore found much that I approved in the po- 
litical course of Senator Wilson, but I have read his correspond- 
ence on this subject, and I applaud every word and syllable of 
it. I am glad he refused the challenge so feebly offered to meet 
him on the so called field of honor; and my opinion is that 
Brooks knew beforehand what the answer would be. 1 am glad 
he put his refusal on the ground that it was a relic of barbarism ; 
for, though the practice still lingers among the most civilized 
nations of the world, I regard it as essentially barbarous. I 
know that here I differ from some men, whose opinion on most 
subjects I willingly place above my own. I heartily thank that 
senator also for declining the challenge, because the laws of the 
country have fixed upon duelling the stigma of crime ; for 
obedience to the law is an example greatly needed— never more 
needed— in high places. I thank him for placing his refusal on 
such grounds, and for the manly manner in which it was done. — 
I com mend him for it. But my chief gratitude is due to him 
for refusing by any co-operation on his part to raise that felon 
from the infamy of the assassin to the respectability of the duel- 
list. (Great applause.) 

To those who know me and my relations with the distinguish- 
ed Senator, Mr. Sumner, it is well known that I have not sym- 
pathized with all parts of his course. But 

" In such a time as this it is not meet 

That every nice offence should bear its comment.'" 

I know Mr. Sumner well. In former times, I had a long, an 
intimate, and an affectionate acquaintance with him ; and I feel 
bound to say, that he is a scholar of rich and rare acquire- 
ments ; a gentleman of noble qualities and generous aims ; dis- 
tinguished for the amenities of social life, and a companion 
most welcome in the soc iety of the most generous, the most 
refined, the most exalted. Sir, I had nothing to do with send- 
ing Mr. Sumner to the Senate of the United States ; I had 
no Yote to cast on that occasion, and if I had had, it would not, 
on public grounds, have been cast for him. I shall have none to 
cast when the time for another election comes. But if I had five 
hundred votes, every one should be given to send him back 
again. (Great applause.) 

Such is the man for whom ruffians lay in wait — whom they 
assaulted, when unarmed and defenceless, in the Senate House. 
I could have wished that the Senator of Massachusetts had 
passed over the personalities of which he has so long been the ob- 



20 

ject, in the silence of a lofty disdain. I am sorry he did not ad- 
dress himself at once and solely to his great argument, forging 
an adamantine chain of fact and logic, without a rhetorical 
ornament or a word of sarcasm upon individuals or States. But 
it should be remembered that Mr. Sumner was retorting for 
bitter speech and grievous public wrongs. What a monstrous 
violation of law — what a trampling under loot of all the usages 
of civilized society, to deal out deadly blows upon the head, as 
an answer to words, however severe, spoken in debate, and not 
checked by the presiding officer, nor by any member of the Senate, 
when they were delivered. Let them answer taunt with taunt — 
they can do it ; invective with invective — they can do that. Let 
them refute fact by fact — if they can do it ; and put down argu- 
ment by argument — if they can do that. Not only a crime has 
been committed, but what some politicians consider worse, a 
blunder. The perpetrator of this outrage has brought deep and 
damning dishonor not upon Mr. Sumner, but upon himself, and 
upon his country; — and the man who would do a deed to dishonor 
his country, would not be ashamed to fix a stigma on the namo 
of his mother. Do you think, sir, that this barbarous history 
will escape unnoticed by the great judgment of the nations ? 
Oh, no ! There is not a tyrant sitting on a throne in Europe 
who will not exult as he listens to the tale of republican out- 
rage ; there is not a true friend of the rights of man in the old 
world, who will not see in sorrow the prospects of the future dark- 
ened by this atrocious assault upon freedom in her very citadel ; 
there is not a victim of despotism now groaning in the dungeons 
of Austria, Rome, or Naples, who will not feel his fetters more 
strongly riveted, by this treason to liberty and to the honor of 
the American Republic. 

But he has, with most unfilial spirit, brought especial shame 
upon his native State. South Carolina has had her whims, her nul- 
lification, which was put down by another Massachusetts Sena- 
tor, her fanaticism, extraordinary, wonderful, like a demoniac 
possession, in favor of slavery. But she is one of the Old Thir- 
teen who stood side by side in the Revolution. There arc no 
higher minded gentlemen on God's earth than hers. Some of 
us arc hound to her by the ties of hospitality— and hers is a 
generous hospitality — others by the ties of friendship and kin- 
dred, and all by the ties of a common country. The Huguenot 
blood, the bost blood of Trance and of liberty, and still throb- 
bing with all high feeling, flows in the veins of her offspring. 



21 

In looking over the College Catalogue, (I am a college man, and 
nothing more,) I see that many of the brightest names are those 
from South Carolina, and a fair portion of college honors has been 
won and worn by her generous sons. 

If we look back to the past, her history is emblazoned with the 
fame of those who were brave in the field and wise in coun- 
cil — none wiser, none braver. And in the period between 
the days of the revolution and our own I might mention a 
long list of names, eminent for their genius, their character, and 
their public services ; scholars, statesmen, orators, of whom any 
state might be proud. I could speak of the logic of Calhoun, 
of the eloquence of Preston, of the affluent and varied scholar- 
ship of Legare, who dying among us, was honored by the 
warm eulogies of Story. But I can pause only upon one name, 
which must always be heard with admiration and affection in 
this place, — Washington Allston. Even as I speak the name, 
his form rises before me, and I seem to see him shake his 
venerable locks in unwonted indignation at the degeneracy of 
this son of his native state. I seem to hear again the music of 
that gentle voice which often held me entranced long after the 
midnight hour. Eminent as a poet, critic, novelist and artist, 
the light of his genius is an ever brightening glory to the land 
that gave him birth. If something has been found in American 
poetry worthy the admiration of the lettered men of the world, 
it is due in no small measure to the beautiful genius of a son of 
South Carolina. If American fictitious literature has attracted the 
regards and won the approval of the literary republic, it is due 
in no small measure to the delightful genius of a son of South 
Carolina. If American life has been found susceptible of the 
charm of art, it is due in no small measure to the works of im- 
perishable beauty created by the pure and lofty genius of a son 
of South Carolina, and clothed in immortal colors by his magic 
pencil. If yonder churchyard is visited, like a pilgrim's shrine, 
by the lovers of the beautiful, the pure and the true, from every 
country in the world, it is because a son of South Carolina, — 
born under the genial skies of that fair state, and educated here, 
— having connected his name by the dearest and tenderest ties 
with the distinguished names of Dana and Channing, — now 
sleeps the sleep of death in that consecrated spot. 

Such is the state which this man, in the audacity of his vulgar 
nature, has presumed to represent in the courts of Honor. Sir, 
it is her duty, by all the great names that adorn her history, to 



22 

cast him off for the act by which he has brought foul scorn 
upon her escutcheon. There may be men there who will appear 
to approve this deed. We are told of costly testimonials now 
preparing, which arc to record on votive silver and by the grav- 
er's art. the high sense some of his constituents entertain of the 
gallantry of his conduct. We are told that some of the negro 
slaves have passed resolutions applauding him for striking down 
the defender of their race — fit work for slaves, white or black. 
But I find none of the old Carolina names — the Middletons, the 
Hamiltons, the Hugers, the Rutledges — connected with these 
disreputable movements. No ! Carolina must and will disown a 
crime already stamped by the dread verdict of public opinion, 
with the ineffaceable stigma of cowardice and brutality. If in 
a moment of frenzy she should refuse to purify herself from this 
great reproach — then is the age of chivalry gone indeed. 

To the question what is to be done, I have but little to add to 
what has already been laid down with so much precision. This 
at all events should be done. It is the solemn duty of every 
man, North and South, to unite in lending such force to public 
opinion, that such a deed shall be impossible for the future. 

SPEECH OF rilOF. F. D. HUNTINGTON. 

I am almost forbidden by a cold to respond to your call; but I 
must be much hoarser than I am to-night not to be able to say 
which side I am on, in times like these. Indeed, sir. that is be- 
coming a much easier matter than it was once. Events have 
simplified it. It has begun to be found out that there are only 
two sides ; and I hope we who are here are satisfied there is only 
one. 

Greatly as I admire the magnanimity of the speakers who 
have gone before me, — and I do most sincerely admire it, — I am 
not in a position to share in it. For I never voted against Mr. 
Sumner in my life; I am under no oath nor attachment to the 
Fugitive Slave Law ; and on the other hand, I do not profess to 
be free from all personal feeling for these injuries. Yet there is 
a common ground of protest quite broad enough to hold us all 
together. 

These are times, sir, of rapid thinking and strong feeling. 
And when we are borne on by powerful emotions, it is a capital 
thing for us that we have a good, broad, long, strong platform 
laid down for us by a couple of excellent lawyers. 



23 

The question of provocation has been settled. Both the Con- 
stitution itself and the very first amendment to it have decided 
that. " No member of Congress shall be held accountable for 
what is said in debate. Congress shall have no power to limit 
the freedom of speech or of the press." 

Some forty or more vigilant and suspecting senators heard Mr. 
Sumner through, and were not able, to call him to order. 

Sir, we have the law on our side in more ways than one. I 
submit to your own legal judgment, whether, in the account that 
has been running up between Massachusetts and South Carolina, 
a new item must not be added. These are not days when any 
state can afford to be unrepresented in the National Congress. 
Our senator there during all these weeks, is detained by violence 
from his post. In the high court of public equity there must be 
a reckoning for that robbery. The act that has been committed, 
the causes leading to it, are wrong through and through, base 
from top to bottom, evil in all their ramifications. 

I am thankful that this old University is peimitted to appear 
and speak along with civilians and citizens. Surely learning 
should have a voice with the rest in the land. Of what use to 
crowd the brain with knowledge if the whole body may be struck 
down by the hand of violence ? Of what use to form the tongue 
to eloquence if it may any time be smitten still by the coward's 
stick? Why bestow culture and art on our youth if some day 
one of the most polished and stately shafts in the temple of 
learning may be prostrated by some deadly blow ? In this foul 
affront to scholarship every scholar is humiliated. All Christen- 
dom rises to condemn this crime. Statesmen, jurists, lawyers 
spring forward to utter their rebuke for the insult to one of the 
worthiest members in their fellowship. Commerce turns from 
its ledger and its far glance over the seas to stigmatise the infa- 
my. Agriculture, mechanics, all classes join in the indignant 
cry. Even pugilism and bullyism protest. Brooks has been 
called the Bill Poole of Congress ; but the friends of that " re- 
spectable" prize-fighter resent the comparison. " Mr. William 
Poole," writes one of them, "always held to two rules of honor, 
violated by Mr. Brooks. He never struck his antagonist without 
notice; and he never struck him after he was down." 

Considering how the act came to be done, and what preceded 
it, we can see from what sprung the animus which bore its malig- 
nity into that act. It was the legitimate working of the temper 
of oppression. Christianity holds the life of the meanest slave 



24 

as dear to God as the life of the senator in his seat. It holds the 
hlows inflicted on the hack of the poor hlack woman as worthy 
of execration as those on the fertile hrain of the honored and 
honorable man, and as deep an injury is inflicted upon humanity 
by the hand of cruelty in the remote plantation, as by violence 
in the chamber of the Senate. When outrage is heaped on 
some dark, misshapen creature under the overseer's lash, the 
God of justice and love is as truly offended as when the erect 
and manly form of our friend was prostrated by the cudgel. He 
who is reared to look indifferently and contemptuously on 
this aspect of Christian truth, is no fit companion for legislators 
and gentlemen. 

Let us, at least, see where we stand. If it has come to this, 
that the more ample the manhood of the representative we send 
to Washington, the more inevitable mark we present to the 
thrusts and shots of brutal villainy : if the more unanswerable 
the argument, the more certain is it to be met by a bludgeon ; if, 
besides the old difficulties in finding fit men to make our laws, 
we have got to put the candidates through a course of practice 
in the boxing-ring ; then, it seems to me, we have come to what 
the politicians call a new issue. We must have new statute- 
books, new courthouses, and, judging by what we have heard 
to-night, new law-professors as well. Sir, men doubt whether 
this is a political meeting. I think it is political, if politics have 
any value. Very poor politics those must be, and a very poor 
religion that must be, which will not be concerned in the pro- 
found question the country is now forced to consider. The 
tariff can afford to wait. There are other duties besides those on 
iron and wool. Internal improvements can wait : for we need 
improvements more internal yet, — inside the breists of men. 
What matter is it whether a man be naturalized to-day or to- 
morrow, if we have a most unnatural brutality born and bred, 
nursed, and suckled, and pushed into Congress before our eyes ? 
Let the " currency" stand in abeyance, so long as we have reason 
to fear that nothing is to bo current but the praises of slavery, 
and the unprincipled chicanery of despotism ; so long as we see 
the bodies of freemen gashed, and mutilated, and knocked about 
the national capitol, like bales of refuse merchandise. 

Mr. Chairman, I mean to vote for this excellent Resolution. 
I came here to-night for that very purpose, against strong at- 
tractions drawing me in another direction. But then, if I thought 
the Itesolu tion was to exhaust our interest, send us away satis- 



25 

fied, and let us rest, it should have no vote of mine. It has often 
been said that we are a talking and a resolving people. I hope I 
do not undervalue noble speech. It is one of the divine forces 
God has put into the world for carrying forward his sublime 
plans. When I hear it, — as we all hear it now, — flowing forth 
from sincere hearts to eloquent tongues, and resounding through 
the land in behalf of righteousness, I am sure it is no vain thing. 
Nay, sir, 1 remember, too, it was burning and convincing speech 
that brought down the murderous blows on that strong and ac- 
complished head. But it is no true speech that does not termin- 
ate in action. We must do something about it. Our feeling 
must run out to our fingers' ends. When emotion is kindled as 
it is kindled here, I always want to have some task set me. 

I liked the wit of a public meeting like this held up-country, 
where I was last week, at which they voted to give a copy of 
Sumner's speech to every family in town. As to Resolves, — 
why, there have been anti-slavery resolves enough passed by re- 
spectable and responsible bodies at the North, within the last 
ten years, to make up a plump anti-slavery Bible. But this 
would not be our Christian Bible. That Bible is written in 
deeds more than in words. Its very precepts are chronicled in 
palpable and substantial works. Its central meaning is symbol- 
ized in the solid cross. Even the bright bow of its promises is 
projected from a dark background of cloud whose exhalations 
arose from fields wet with tears and blood. It has been well 
said that the New Testament gives us, not the Resolves of the 
Apostles, but the Acts of the Apostles. Sir, we must hold fast 
these fine sentiments we utter so fluently till they take shape and 
consistency in action. The summer heat must not wilt them 
down; the summer pleasures must not emasculate them; the 
early and latter rain must not dilute them. The autumn frosts 
must not wither them. We must keep them till next November. 
Then we must take them between our fingers, and put them in- 
to those boxes where are the fate- books of Republics, — the 
treasury chests of every wise and upright Democracy. And 
if the. Missouri rioters or the renegade knighthood of the 
Carolinas shall come on to snatch the very ballot-boxes out of 

our hands, then, sir, we must put them into but, Mr. 

Chairman, I am a member of the Peace Society ! (Cheers and 
cries of go on.) No, it shall not come to that ! If we are faith- 
ful and true it shall not come to that. A great revolution is 
taking place, deep in the minds of men, «ne of those rerolutions 
which never, never go back. 

3 



26 

SPEECH OF R. n. DANA, JR., ESQ. 

Richard H. Dana, Jr., followed, and was cordially received. 

Mr. President. — Fellow-citizens, as I am happy to say to- 
night, of my native town, I shall hardly attempt at this late hour 
(half past ten o'clock] to go over again the general topics that 
have been so ably presented by those who have spoken before me. 
Let us address ourselves to the question — What is to be done ? 
What 19 Massachusetts, what are we, going to do about it ? 

But I cannot, if I would, altogether withdraw my thoughts 
from this personal outrage upon Mr. Sumner. Charles Sumner ! 
" He is my friend — faithful and just to me." I cannot allow my- 
self to call up that scene in the Senate House, lest I should feel 
more than I shall be able to express, or be willing to betray. 
Boston, his native town, has spoken. Next to Boston, there is 
no place so dear to him as Cambridge. He is a true son of Har- 
vard. The best years of his early life, from fifteen to twenty- 
three, he spent here — the four years of college, a fifth year which 
he wisely, though unusually, added to his course, for the perfect- 
ing of his classical and general studies, and the three years of 
his studies in the law school. At the law school, his attainments 
were not only great, but wonderful ; and for purity of character, 
kindness and frankness, he was respected and beloved by all^ 
He was the friend, young as he was, the beloved friend, the fre. 
quent and honored guest of Story, of Channing, and of Allston. 
He was the companion of your Longfellow and your Felton. 
No young man was more honored by Mr. Webster in — I had al- 
most said — his better days. He was the friend of every man 
and of every cause that deserved to have a friend. At the bar, he 
distinguished himself especially in juridical literature. He was 
the reporter of Judge Story's decisions, and editor of the Jurist, 
where the young student will find the copious results of his en- 
thusiastic labors in his then beloved profession. When he went 
abroad, he took nothing in his hand that his own merits had not 
given him. He had not one claim that did not rest on character, 
learning and talents. Still under the age of thirty, he became in 
Europe the honored friend of men whose names have honored 
the world. Turning his back upon the attractions of dissipation 
and fashion, he devoted himself to the rociety of the learned, the 
wise, the philanthropic, and to all great and good objects. 
Thomas Carlyle, in a letter to America, says, " we have had 
popular Sumner,here," so universally was he liked. In Paris, 
while the Northeastern boundary question was agitating England 



27 

and America, and attracting much of tho attention of Europe, 
Mr. Sumner shut himself into the libraries and public archives, 
and produced a treatise upon the subject, thought then to be al- 
most exhausted, which, published in the great journals of Eu- 
rope, and brought before Parliaments and Councils, changed the 
aspect of the question in Europe, and redounded to his great 
honor at home. 

After his return, under the influence of Dr. Channing, and in 
sympathy with Dr. Howe and others, he devoted much of his 
time to the great philanthropic and social problems of the day, 
slavery, pauperism, crime, and prison discipline, and gradually 
the overshadowing social, political and national importance of 
the slave question drew him first before the people and into pub- 
lic life. When his sentiments on the slave question were to be 
sustained at the risk of his ease, his interests, his friendships and 
his popularity, he put them all to the hazard. When proposed 
as candidate for the Senate, the highest office Massachusetts can 
give, — while his election hung trembling in the balance, week 
after week, when one or two votes would secure it, and this or 
that thing said or done it was thought would gain them, nothing 
would induce Charles Sumner to take one step from his regular 
course from his house to his office, to speak to any man ; ho 
would not make one bow the more, nor put his hand to a 
line, however simple or unobjectionable, to secure the result. I 
know — I have right to say this, — I know that in this course he 
resisted temptations and advice and persuasions which few men 
would not have yielded to. He was elected. It was a tribute to 
character and talent. 

When he went to Washington, to fight almost alone, with only 
two or three allies, discountenanced by colleagues and cried 
down by the great majority, to fight the fight for freedom, he de- 
termined not to speak on the subject of slavery until he had 
done all in his power to secure the confidence and good will of 
his opponents. So far did he carry this, that his friends here 
feared that he was bending before the idol, as others had bent. 
He secured his footing as well as it could be secured. All but 
fanatics for slavery admitted his claims to personal affection and 
public respect. On this basis he took his stand for freedom. 
You have seen the result. Few men in America have ever had, 
perhaps no man now has, so many readers as he. His opponents 
say that he burns the midnight lamp. He does. And — 
" How far that little candle throws its b.-am ! " 



28 

His opponents, too, burn the midnight lamp, but as you remem- 
ber, sir, the great Athenian said, there is a difference between the 
objects on which their lamp throws its glare and his. 

He has been struck down in a manner which his colleague has 
forever branded, and so we declare it to-night, as " brutal, mur- 
derous, and cowardly." This is bad, but it is not that which 
stirs the people of the free States as one man. He was struck 
down for words spoken in debate, and in the sanctuary of his 
office. But this is not all. It was done by a member of Con- 
gress, and expressly for words spoken in debate. But this is 
not half. It will not be punished. The man who did the deed 
will not be expelled, nor will he be punished, adequately, if at 
all, by the laws of the District of Columbia, — a domain ceded 
to Congress for the very purpose of enabling it to secure free- 
dom of debate and action, by laws of its own. All this may 
6eem bad, wrong, grievous, intolerable. But I have not begun 
to name the great evil yet. There are ninety representatives 
from the slave States. Every one present at the vote, voted 
against inquiry. There were several senators from the slave 
States present at the assault. Blow after blow fell on his de- 
fenceless head. No one knew that the next blow might not be 
the fatal blow ; yet not one interfered ; no word, no cry, no mo- 
tion! [Yes, Mr. Crittenden did] Perhaps he did at the close, 
a little, but for that little he was threatened with chastisement on 
the spot. Not one press south of the Potomac has condemned 
the act. Not one public man, or public body has condemned it. 
On the contrary, all have adopted and defended it. It is recog- 
nized as a policy — as a system, and commendation and honor are 
heaped upon the perpetrator, so that others may be stimulated to 
do the like. Already the leading Southern journals are pointing 
out the next victim. A kind of Lynch law is to be instituted 
wherever the subject of slavery is involved. 

Now, fellow-citizens, I beg of you to ask yourselves what all 
this indicates. Let us not be children, gazing at the painted 
scene ! let us lift the curtain, and look at the movers and actors 
behind. 

Freedom of speech is at stake in Congress. Freedom in the 
choice of institutions is at stake in Kansas. Seven in every 
eight of the inhabitants of Kansas desire free institutions ; yet 
slavery is forced upon them. The people cannot select their in- 
stitutions, nor can Congress prescribe them. Force governs — 
irregular, unlawful, brute force governs ; and governs by aid and 
countenance of the national authorities ! 



29 

Mr. President, the last census has demonstrated what many 
have declared, but few have believed, that under the form of a 
republic, this country is now, and has long been, governed by an 
oligarchy. In the free States, there are now about seventeen 
millions of free inhabitants, and no slaves. In the slave States, 
there are four millions of slaves, owned by three hundred and 
fifty thousand owners. These 350,000 owners of slaves own the 
valuable land and the laborers, and monopolize the government 
of the slave States. The non-slaveholding free population is of 
little account. This forms the privileged class, the oligarchy. 
It is not for the purpose of making them odious that I use this 
name. It is the only proper designation. Including the fam- 
ilies of the owners, there may be two millions of persons in the 
dominant class or order. 

This oligarchy has governed the whole country, and governs 
it now, with a sway of increasing demands and exactions. Of 
seventeen Presidential elections, natives of the slave States have 
carried thirteen, and natives of the free States four. Of the life 
of our government, forty-nine years have been passed under 
slaveholding chief magistrates, and eighteen under non- slave- 
holders. They have always had a majority of the judges of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. The population, the arts, 
the sciences, commerce, inventions, copy-rights, manufactures, all 
are with the free States. Yet the slave States hold and have 
always held the judiciary. They almost monopolized the army 
and navy, when appointments were open. At this moment, al- 
though there are sixteen free States and fifteen slave States, a 
majority, of the Senate are slaveholders. To make a long story 
short, there has never been a question between the slave power 
and the free power, on the floor of Congress, in which the slave 
power has not triumphed. Originally, the rule was, that all new 
states and territories should be free. No new slave States, was 
the maxim on which the government was formed. The Missou- 
ri Compromise of 1820 was a triumph of the slave power, for it 
divided the new territory between slavery and freedom. Its re- 
peal, in 1854, was a greater triumph, for it opened all the new 
territories to slavery. The Compromises of 1850 were a victory 
on their side. The annexation of Texas, with the right to divide 
it into four slave States, was, perhaps, the greatest of all. 

But I will not go over the recital of the successive defeats of 
freedom and aggressions of slavery. The subjugation of Kansas 
is the latest triumph. The subjugation of free speech is its ob- 

•* 



30 

ject now. At first, you recollect, no man can have forgotten, the 
right of petition was denied. For that John Quincy Adams per- 
iled all a public man has to peril, and life itself. Next, through 
resolves of Congress and platforms of both the great parties, they 
tried again to suppress free speech. Now, they chastise it by 
violence, in the last spot on earth from which it should be driv- 
en, in the very sanctuary of its refuge. No man has received a 
national nomination that is not acceptable to them. No man can 
be confirmed in a national office, from Secretary of State or Min- 
ister at St. James', to the humblest postmaster, that is not satis- 
factory to them. Mr. Everett's appointment at St. James' hung 
in suspense, because he was suspected of having uttered some- 
where, a sentiment hostile to slavery and its interests. Tho 
country is one vast Dyonisius' ear. Every whisper in the closet 
is transmitted and punished. Mr. Sumner has demonstrated that 
neither Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin, nor Patrick 
Henry, with their recorded opinions on Slavery, could be con- 
firmed to-day in any national office. 

The issue can no longer be concealed or avoided, or delayed. 
The issue is between this oligarchy of slavery, bent upon exten- 
sion and domination, and the free classes of the North, with 
their free speech, free labor, and free choice of institutions. 

I promised to answer the question — what is to be done 1 The 
remedy is easy, plain, legal and peaceable. The free states have 
a majority of fifty-six votes in the electoral colleges. The elec- 
tion of President comes on next November. We can elect a 
President and Vice President, with votes to spare. The free 
states have a majority of fifty-four in the House of Representa- 
tives, and are entitled to a majority of two in the Senate. We 
can control, by right, by mere force of law, every department of 
the government. The only revolution we need is a change of 
opinion — no greater revolution than to put this ballot into the 
box instead of that. It is our duty to do this, and to restore the 
government to its original principles and condition. It would 
eeem to be an easy task. No king gocth to war without count- 
ing the cost, and seeing whether with ten thousand he can meet 
the king that comcth against him with twenty thousand. It 
would not seem to require any king to calculate long whether 
with seventeen millions he can meet 350,000 masters, with 
4,000,000 slaves, that come against him. 

But let us not deceive ourselves. The task is no easy one. 
Oligarchies have governed the world. All Europe is governed by 



31 

oligarchies and monarchs. Democratic republics are rare, if 
indeed they ever exist in great nations, except in name. The 
experiment of a purely democratic, representative republic, as a 
sovereignty, has never been tried here. Our government has al- 
ways been qualified by the element of a slaveholding aristocracy. 
This aristocracy is powerful — powerful in its unity of interest, 
the common slave property, with its value and its perils. It is 
powerful in its character as a caste. Unlike all other modern 
aristocracies, it is a caste, and the most powerful, formidable and 
exclusive of all castes, a caste founded on race and color. It is 
powerful in the ordinary elements of power which oligarchies 
possess. The aristocratic training gives great personal elements 
of control, the bearing, the habit of command, the assertion of 
superiority. To weak minds there is a fascination in aristocracy. 
In social life this is especially felt, at Washington, in the society 
of our cities and watering places, and in our colleges, and where- 
ever in public affairs or in private circles, the two classes are 
brought in contact. Every man who feels doubtful of his own 
gentility, bows to the established aristocracy of slavery. That 
which has been is that which shall be, and there is no new thing 
under the sun. 

What are the forces we are to bring into the field ? Divided , 
mixed, heterogeneous races and classes of free people. John 
Randolph said : — " We govern you by your white slaves." The 
vast class of the timid and time-serving, the mere camp-followers, 
the soldiers of fortune, who have so long thrown their weight into • 
the scale against us, and turned it — they belong to the strongest. 
No men are so easily calculated upon as they. Show ourselves 
the strongest, and we have them. Is there force enough, virtue 
enough in our seventeen millions to assert their political equality, 
to achieve their own enfranchisement, to renovate the policy and 
retrieve the honor of the country, to make freedom national and 
slavery sectional, to make freedom the rule and slavery the ex- 
ception, to secure the future for freedom ? The Dutch revolution 
was as noble as our own. The Dutch began in civil and reli- 
gious liberty, with heroism, freedom, industry and prosperity. 
In time, they came to make material prosperity their ruling mo- 
tive. They ceased to live for ideas, and what are they now ? 
Rich, prosperous, educated, respectable, useless and despised ! 
The high tone, the glory— is gone ! What hath been is that 
which shall be, and there is no new thing under the sun. Is this 
to be the fate of Massachusetts, of New England 1 I would no$ 



32 

address you in the language of despondency, but of hope. Mas- 
sachusetts has lived in times past for glory, for honor, for ideas, 
for abstractions. Much has been done to bring her into subjec- 
tion to material interests and unheroic maxims. But I believe 
she will slough these off in the time of trial that is upon her. 

But let us not use "brave words." Shall we "unpack our 
hearts with words, and fall to cursing like very drabs, like scul- 
lions?" If we cannot act, let us not talk. But this meeting is 
full of encouragements. It is an omen. The men gathered 
here are representative men. The clergy are here because some- 
thing is at stake, with the loss of which religion itself will be 
subjected and put into thrall. The law is here, not because a 
question of law is in issue, but because the law itself is at stake. 
Learning, science are here, for what is learning, what is science, 
the right to think and act, what are they in the hands of a servi- 
ent class ? — 

" Quid tibi prodest 

Aerias t ntasse domos, animo que rotundum 

Percurrisse polum — morituro." 

Our resolutions say that the duty is plain and the work practi- 
cable, and " let it be done" ! We say the same — let it be done! 
If the men of scholarship and accomplishments, who have hith- 
erto held the highest posts and honors, do not feel themselves up 
to the work, if the men who owe to our institutions all they are, 
are not up to the work, the people can call the cobbler from his 
bench at Natick, the factory boy from the loom at Waltham, the 
.farmer from the plough, and the sailor from the yardarm, but the 
work shall be done. Fishermen and tent-makers renovated the 
world. The centurion was sent to a fisherman who lodged at the 
house of a tanner by the sea-side, to learn what should be done 
for mankind. 

Before parting to-night, let us ask any doubting friend, if there 
be one here, what provocation more he proposes to wait for. 
They have added slave states by a coup (Vetat; will you wait until 
they have added Cuba or Central America ? They have tried to 
force slavery on Kansas ; will you wait until they have suc- 
ceeded ? They have violated one solemn compact ; how many 
more must they violate before you will assert your right? They 
have struck dowu a senator in his place. Some of their presses 
have designated the next victim; will you wait until he has 
fallen ? For my own part, I think the senator from Georgia was 
right when he said the deed was done in the right place and in 
the right mauncr. It needed an act as bad as it could be made, 



33 

to ronse the spirit of the North. Let the priest be slain at the 
altar stone. Let these Herods mingle the blood with these sacri- 
fices. It was needed. We have been so long servient, that the 
spirit of freedom must be roused by violence. " It is not fit that 
the land of the pilgrims should bear the shame longer." By the 
duty we owe to the cause of justice and liberty in the world, to 
the past and to the future ; by the natural pride of men ; by the 
artificial honor of gentlemen ; by the universal and unerring in- 
stincts of nature, it is not fit that we bear the shame longer. 

Mr. Dana's remarks were received with great applause. 

On motion of the Rev. Dr. Newell it was voted that the Reso- 
lution be adopted and a copy of it sent to Mr. Sumner. The 
vote was unanimous. 

The assembly then very quietly retired. 



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